“I’ve prayed about it, and God told me that it’s the best decision I could ever make—that somehow I will find myself here.” Nessa stared her father right in the eye and did not blink.

“Me too.” April nodded. “Don’t know if Flynn has, but I do know he’s battling demons of his own. We’re all here for a while, so suck it up, Uncle Isaac, and let us do what we have to do.”

“That’s disrespectful,” Isaac said through clenched teeth. “You were always a rebellious girl, and being an adult hasn’t done anything but make it worse.”

“You always made me feel like I was something you stepped in out in the yard,” April said. “Aunt Cora was sweet to me, but answer me this question since you think I’m disrespectful: Why did you treat me like that?”

“Because I never liked your mother. Mama was worse after she was born, and no matter how hard I prayed for my mother, she didn’t get any better. Then you came along, and things went from bad to worse,” Isaac said.

“Now that’s disrespectful—taking your anger with your mother out on April?” Nessa said.

“Enough!” Isaac banged his fist on the table, and coffee sloshed out everywhere.

Cora hopped up, grabbed a paper towel, and wiped up the mess. “Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“You shouldn’t have to say you’re sorry for the truth,” Isaac said. “We’ll be going now. I’m disappointed in both of you.”

“Not Flynn?” Nessa asked.

“I never did have hope for him, and very little for April, but I did for you. Come on, Cora. Let’s get on back to Paris to the church conference.” Isaac stood up so fast that he knocked over his chair.

Cora picked it up and pushed it back under the table, then bent down and hugged Nessa. “He means well.”

“Maybe so, but my mind is made up,” Nessa said.

Isaac stormed out of the house with Cora right behind him.

“What do we do now?” April asked.

“We have breakfast and then go see about Flynn,” Nessa answered.

“For the first time in my life, I was glad that my mother wasn’t around to be a part of that fiasco,” April said, and then she bit off the end of a piece of bacon.

“And you thought you were the unlucky one,” Nessa said.

Flynn had sat up, but his eyes were glued to the waterfall when Nessa sat down on one side of him and April on the other. The charcoal-colored clouds moved off to the east as if they knew he didn’t need any more darkness around him that morning. He wanted his father to come back to the waterfall and answer a dozen questions, like, What had made him and Isaac take two completely separate paths?